a sort of diary

After the main Ozashiki the guests for the evening started to file out and wend their ways home as our regulars stayed behind for the private ceremony that is the (literal) end to Sakkou.

Those who had the special invitations I sent out had come to witness the end of my time as Maiko and celebrate the Geisha I was ready to become. I was very nervous and went to the back room to prepare to be presented and perform my last dance as Maiko, Kurokami.

When everything had calmed down (including me) and I knew the celebratory sparkling sake and cups were set out ready I was announced by Hachisaru, who thanked those present for supporting the development of the Maiko who was about to perform. I danced Kurokami.. trying to maintain my presence of mind, sinking my awareness into each moment and it’s bodily representation of the lyrics in…

If you only read and share one article on this blog in 2017, this needs to be it.

On the very first day of 2017, the Labour right-wingers were already plotting their next attempt to seize power in the Labour party. For all their protestations about ‘electability’ and their accusations against Corbyn and his supporters, it’s never been more clear that it’s the Labour right (laughably still called ‘moderates’ in the media) that is prepared to accept electoral defeat in exchange for a return to the status quo that they pine for.

Below is an image of an email sent 1st Jan by right-wing faction Labour First to its mailing list – clicking on it should reveal a larger, more legible version:

The email shows Labour First encouraging its supporters to try to catch the Corbyn-supporting majority flat-footed by arranging early selection, at CLP (constituency Labour party) level, of the…

Yesterday, the SKWAWKBOX published an article exposing the blinkered monomania of right-wing Labour ‘gangs’ ‘Labour First’ (LF), Saving Labour and Blue Labour, showing how – while Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn spent last Saturday fighting for the NHS and heading ‘NHS Day’, Labour’s biggest-ever campaign, the right-wing groups spent it smearing Corbyn and plotting to grab control of the party.

The notable absence in the article was Progress, the most damaging group, to which a too-high number of Labour MPs owe fealty. But although they weren’t specifically mentioned in the post, they were at the centre of all the goings-on, with Progress gloominary Tom Watson and its director Richard Angell heavily involved in LF’s awful “Putting Labour First” conference that took place on Saturday.

But if right-wing Labour is about anything, it’s about image, PR and ‘message control’. It’s all they’ve got, after all.

For years now, this blog and others have been warning that the Tories’ plan for the NHS is to end it – at least in any meaningful sense. Their claims that the NHS was ‘safe in our hands’ have been nonsense even before they were spoken, as the Conservatives were planning the withering of the NHS long before they became the leading party in coalition government in 2010.

As Noam Chomsky observed, the methodology is underhand but not complicated:

That’s the standard technique of privatization: defund, make sure things don’t work, people get angry, you hand it over to private capital.

But privatisation is not the ‘endgame’. Paying taxes to fund the NHS still means paying taxes – anathema to rich Tories. Making us pay for our treatment to private providers – that’s the endgame.

Private capital expects to make a profit – and to pay minimal taxes, so…

Our most recent performance (at Totnes Civic Hall’s New Year Celebrations) My memories of Hachihana’s Misedashi debut resurfaced in my mind. The reason for this was that for New Year… and for the Ozashiki party coming up on the 17th of this month.. we wear our most formal kimono. This year Hachihana will be celebrating a year of being a maiko by giving up her dangling kanzashi and painting both lips..

It was a busy Ozashiki 🙂 As we set up for it we also prepared for her Misedashi ceremony which was similar to the Sisterhood ceremony we held when she got her Geimei (art name). Obasan prepared the area as I helped my little sister adjust to her upcoming evening and responsibilities. Then we sat, with an audience of Shikomi, Minarai and helpers, and reflected on what Hachihana’s art life has been…